DENVER — Before a Monday night primetime audience, and to the Broncos' great fortune, Jameis Winston condensed his dubious record-setting 2019 season into one game.
In 2019 while playing for the Tampa Bay Bucs, Winston became the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 30 touchdown passes (he had 33) and 30 interceptions in the same season. The Bucs went 7-9 that year.
The next year Winston was replaced by Tom Brady and the Bucs won the Super Bowl.
The lesson: Too many picks will turn a Super Bowl-caliber team into one with a losing record.
Five years later, it's Monday night at Empower Field at Mile High. The sellout crowd of 68,306 (more than 7,000 no-shows) was chilled but energetic, ready to celebrate and relax one minute, only to tense up and worry a few minutes later.
All night long went the emotional pendulum, anguish and joy.
Winston against the Broncos was both magnificent, and reckless. He threw for 497 yards on 34 of 58 passing, and four touchdown passes. He also threw three interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns, first by outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, and then by nickelback Ja'Quan McMillian.
The third was by inside linebacker Cody Barton in the end zone off a first-and-goal from the 2 play with seconds remaining. The Broncos, despite Winston throwing the ball all over the yard and former Broncos receiver Jerry Jeudy putting together a record-setting night, prevailed, 41-32.
"We know we didn't play our best,'' Bonitto said. "But just being able to find a way in that fourth quarter, just keep getting takeaways, keep getting stops and being able to come through with a win, it was big."
To repeat, the same QB who threw 33 TDs and 30 INTs in one season was the QB who threw for 4 TDs and 497 yards against 3 INTs and 2 pick sixes in one game.
“It was my fault,'' Winston said. "I did that, the two touchdowns by defenses, the Pick-6s. Yeah, I’ve been here before. I’ve got to play better.”
Jameis giveth. Jameis taketh away. He is tremendous. But he is careless.
"When we go back and look at that tape we're going to look at a lot of things defensively that we would have done differently. We have to,'' said Broncos head coach Sean Payton. "And yet we had two interceptions for touchdowns and a third interception.
"I told them in the locker room, look it wasn't pretty and yet in the end we did what we had to do, especially late.''
Foreign as it may seem during their eight-season postseason drought, Broncos fans should start planning for football in mid-January. The Broncos are 8-5 with a two-game lead on the Indianapolis Colts for the No. 7 AFC playoff spot. The Broncos and Colts both have a bye this week, then meet Sunday, Dec. 15 at Empower Field.
Beat the Colts in two weeks and the Broncos will be playoff-bound, even if not quite officially. The Browns fell to 3-9. But what a way to go.
Jeudy was the primary recipient of so many Winston throws. With boos ringing in his ears, Jeudy the former Bronco flourished in the villain role, catching a career-best 9 passes for a career-best 235 yards and 8 points off a touchdown and 2-point conversion.
"I loved it,'' Jeudy said about the boos. "They only boo you when they know there's something great in you."
The 235 yards receiving by Jeudy was a record by a Broncos' opponent in the team's 65-year history.
No doubt, the Broncos missed Riley Moss.
The Broncos' starting cornerback opposite star Pat Surtain II was unable to play because of an MCL injury in his right knee. Moss missed a game in which the Browns brought splendid, but mistake-prone Winston and the terrific Jeudy to town. And Moss' replacement, Levi Wallace, had a particularly tough day.
The Browns amassed 552 yards against a Denver defense that came in ranked No. 3 in total defense and No. 2 in scoring defense.
But the Nix-led Broncos offense was pretty good, also. Nix threw for 294 yards -- 93 coming on a down-the-middle bullet to Marvin Mims to convert an third-and-11 into a touchdown. And then there was Bonitto.
Let’s get this straight. Bonitto officially is an outside linebacker, not a pass rusher.
He’s a very good pass rusher, as he entered play Monday night ranked third in the league with 10 sacks.
But an outside linebacker not only rushes the passer, but stops the run and covers receivers.
Bonitto dropped in coverage late in the first half and not only picked off a Winston pass, he returned it 71 yards for a touchdown.
"I keep trying to tell people I played safety back in the day,'' Bonitto said with a grin. "And people will be surprised. But just trying to do my job and when I saw a chance to go break on the ball, I went and did that."
That gave the Broncos a 21-10 lead, but Winston came right back with a touchdown drive.
An incredible 93-yard touchdown pass from Nix to the speedster Mims early in the third quarter helped the home team take a 28-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Bonitto later showed what he's most known for, getting to Winston for a 14-yard sack that killed a Browns drive early in fourth quarter. With the Broncos up, 34-32 at the 2-minute warning and the Browns with the ball, Winston mde a dangerous throw to the left sideline. McMillian leaped and reached for the ball and picked it off. He fell on his back near the Browns' sideline but stayed in bounds and got up without a Brown touching him.
Everyone seemed to stand still except for McMillian, who ran it back 44 yards for a touchdown to clinch the game.
"First of all I felt like the whole game I was playing pretty soft on them,'' McMillian said of his coverage. "I just kept saying, 'I need to challenge them.' They kept running a lot of quick game. I just stayed in there and had great eyes on the play. He threw the ball and the ball was right there. It was like, in my face. And I just got up. I thought I was out of bounds, but I didn't hear no whistle so I just got up and ran. And just kept running to the end zone."
Bronco Bits
With his second extra point made, Broncos kicker Wil Lutz reached 1,000 career points. It came in his 127th career game making him the fifth fastest NFL kicker to reach the milestone. (Four fastest: Justin Tucker, Stephen Gostkowski, Mason Crosby and Mike Vanderjagt.
Jeudy's previous career-best game was the Broncos' final game last year when he had five catches for 154 yards, So in his last two games at Empower Field, he had 389 yards receiving. He was cheered in last season's finale; lustily booed Monday night. ...
Sutton had six catches for 102 yards. With 846 receiving yards through 13 games, he has already passed two $500,000 incentive thresholds -- 500 yards and 750 yards receiving, along with the Broncos improved scoring over last year (23.5 points per game this year; 21.0 points in 2023). "I'm just glad we're winning,'' a smiling Sutton said when told he was picking up an extra $1 million. "I'm just doing my part." ...
The Broncos decided against activating veteran receiver Josh Reynolds from injured reserve in time for the game Monday night. Reynolds has been down since suffering a fractured finger in a week 5 game against the Raiders. The finger has been healed for a while now but the Broncos are waiting to decide on whether to activate him on their 53-man roster until the last possible day, which is Wednesday. Reynolds is guaranteed to make $4.31 million this year. None of his $4.5 million for 2025 is guaranteed.
While on IR, Reynolds was a victim of a drive-by shooting in which Luis Mendoza, 35, and Burr Charlesworth, 42 were arrested on multiple charges, including six counts each of attempted murder. …
Rookie guard-center Nick Gargiulo again was elevated from the practice squad but again was inactive for the game against the Browns. It’s the second consecutive week Gargiulo was elevated but not activated – an indication another team expressed interest in signing him away but the Broncos added some sweeteners to keep him. ...
Running back Javonte Williams only had 1 yard off 4 carries, all in the first half. This after he had -2 yards rushing off 8 carries the previous week against the Raiders. So in the past two games, Williams has -1 yard rushing off 12 carries. ...
Jaleel McLaughlin had runs of 12, 18 and 17 yards and was the Broncos leading rusher with 14 carries for 84 yards. ...
The Browns lined up with two tight ends, one off each offensive tackle to help stem Denver's NFL-leading pass rush. The Broncos had just one sack at halftime, at that was a hustle tackle for no gain by rookie Jonah Elliss.
